May 25, 2004

Basia returns after 10 years - sort of

Basia's last solo CD came 10 years. Now she's back on a new album by the group that gave her her start - Matt Bianco.

One of smooth jazz’s biggest stars from a decade ago, Basia, joins one of today's top stars, Peter White, on a new album being released this month in Europe and Japan by Universal called Matt’s Mood by the pop-jazz band Matt Bianco.

It was back in 1984 that Matt Bianco, co-founded by Peter’s brother, Danny White, made its debut with an album called Whose Side Are You On? featuring Basia’s vocals and Peter’s guitar work. Basia left the group after that album, along with her producer Danny White, to concentrate on Basia’s solo career, which would boast two albums that reached #1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz charts: Time and Tide and London Warsaw New York.

Now, although Basia has not released a solo album since 1994, she is reunited on the new album with brothers Danny and Peter White and Mark Reilly. Peter plays plays guitar or accordion on five songs. Matt’s Mood is scheduled to be released in the United States and Canada in the spring of 2005.

“It’s not a Basia record, but there’s a lot of Basia on it," says Peter White. "And there's a lot of me on it, too. I'm very proud of the record."